Nvidia in talks to invest $3B in SB Energy, provide ~$10B credit support for OpenAI's Ohio data center

Nvidia is in talks to invest up to $3 billion in SoftBank-backed SB Energy, a move directly tied to discussions about providing roughly $10 billion in credit support to help OpenAI finance a massive data center project in Ohio, according to people familiar with the matter.

Under the structure being discussed, Nvidia would put in about half the investment — around $1.5 billion — when the Ohio project deal is signed, and subscribe for the other half in SB Energy's planned initial public offering. If completed, the IPO subscription would make Nvidia one of the largest investors in the offering.

SB Energy could go public as early as next month, targeting at least $5 billion in fundraising. The talks are still ongoing, the investment could shrink in size, and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached; SB Energy may also choose to delay the IPO and seek a larger raise.

SoftBank-controlled SB Energy is leading data center planning in southern Ohio, where the project is expected to be paired with 10 gigawatts of new power generation capacity and carry a total development cost of roughly $500 billion at current hardware, labor, and electricity prices. OpenAI is expected to use the data center and deploy Nvidia chips, which is why Nvidia is negotiating credit backing to help OpenAI fund construction.

SB Energy previously focused on renewable power generation and has limited data center construction experience; in late 2025 it acquired Studio 151, which specializes in data center construction management, engineering, and operations. The company is also developing a 1.2-gigawatt data center for Oracle and OpenAI in Milan County, Texas, and advancing solar and storage projects in Texas, California, and other western states — OpenAI agreed in January to invest $500 million in SB Energy for that project.

The move extends Nvidia's aggressive push into the AI ecosystem, from model developers using its chips to data center builders. Earlier this month it agreed to invest $2 billion in Lancium, a power infrastructure developer supporting another Texas campus for OpenAI and Oracle, with an additional $1 billion commitment pending further power planning; this year it has also put $2 billion each into cloud providers CoreWeave and Nebius, plus $30 billion into OpenAI.

The deepening involvement is fueling investor concerns about circular financing and deepening the AI ecosystem's reliance on a single chip giant. Nvidia is now directly investing in customers or pledging to buy unsold customer capacity, and one credit executive involved in its AI infrastructure deals said some private credit firms are cautious about lending directly to OpenAI.

The key questions now are whether the talks close, when SB Energy's IPO happens, and what final size the credit support reaches — all of which will shape how fast the Ohio mega-project moves forward.